H2O: The Next Generation
by notKate
Summary: The h2o girls have children and, 25 years on, they become mermaids. I'm bad at summaries, the story's (hopefully) better than it looks.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

**Lola's POV**

"Hey Melody," I say, smiling, as she arrives at the café.

She smiles back.

I'm Lola Chadwick. My friends call me Lolly. I'm fifteen.

We walk to the docks and untie the boat. We're camping at Mako Island tonight. Mako's named after the sharks that surround it. No one goes there. Well, except me and Melody. We've been best friends since birth, just about. My mum, Rikki, and Melody's mum, Cleo, met when they were our age. They became friends when they got stranded on Mako with another girl and they've been best friends ever since. The other girl, Emma, moved away and they lost touch.

When Mel and I get off the boat, we set up camp. We sit, talking for a while.

"So, what do you think of Rebecca?" Mel asks.

Rebecca Dove's a new girl at our school. Well, she's been going there for a month now actually, but still. She's American. She's one of those model kind of girls – straight blonde hair, deep blue eyes, tight tops and short skirts.

"Personally, I think she seems absolutely awful. She seems like one of those girls who only cares about her make-up and wouldn't be caught dead doing something like camping. Why did you ask anyway?" I reply.

"Well, let's just say you might want to think again about that camping part," Mel says, pointing out to sea.

I look out to where she's pointing and I see Rebecca Dove and some other girls on a boat, with camping equipment. They all have American accents, so they're presumably her friends visiting from America.

"Looks like we've got company," Mel says.

"Yes," I reply solemnly, nodding. "But not just any company – American tourist company."

Mel smiles. "Do you want to go walk around the island?" she asks.

I nod, and we leave. We walk around for a while, when we suddenly hear a noise behind us. We turn around, and guess who we see. You got it, Rebecca.

"What are you two losers doing here?" she asks with dislike.

"I might ask you the same thing," I say. "Imagine the horror when you wake up and realise that – oh no! – there's nowhere to plug in your hair straighteners!"

Rebecca flicks her hair, rolling her eyes. "Not like you'd know anything about hair straighteners," she says, looking pointedly at my curly blonde hair. "Anyway, I'm trying to get a signal on my mobile, so if you two could just move out of my way…"

As she says that, she idiotically walks backwards, and suddenly falls down a hole. I'd say it serves her right, but Melody rushes over to the hole and I guess I should just follow.

"Are you okay?" Melody asks.

"Yeah, I'm fine. But it's too steep to climb back up. I'll find some other way out."

I peer down the hole.

"Are you sure?" I ask.

"Yes, I'm not stupid," Rebecca replies.

Melody looks at me, silently warning me not to answer back.

"Whatever…" I say. I'm not paying attention, and I suddenly find myself falling down the hole too, and dragging Mel along with me.

"Whoa!" I shout as I fall.

"Nice going," Rebecca says, sarcastically. "Now we're all stuck down here."

"This is your fault," I answer back.

"Guys," Melody warns us. "C'mon, we need to concentrate on getting out of here."

She stands up and walks away. I get up and go with her and Rebecca grudgingly follows too.

We come to a part of the cave that has a hole in the roof and a pool of water.

"This is like some kind of… volcano," I say.

"Look, there's tidal rings. That must mean this pool leads out to sea. We'll be able to get out this way," Rebecca says.

"Huh, smarter than you look," I mumble.

Melody looks at me warningly again.

"So, are you going to go and check if the pool leads out to sea?" I ask Rebecca after we've just stood there for a moment.

"No way!" she practically screams. "My make-up will get ruined!"

"Wimp," I say, one eyebrow raised. I sigh. "I guess I'll have to go in then. Won't be long."

I take off my shoes and wade into the water. I take a deep breath, then duck underwater. I swim for about twenty seconds then come back up gasping for air. I'm in the sea now, just outside that pool. So there is a way out. I take another deep breath and swim back to the cave.

"I found a way out," I tell the others, surfacing.

Melody smiles and jumps into the water next to me. Rebecca just stands there sighing.

"Coming?" I ask her.

"But my make-up!" she shrieks.

"Look, seriously Rebecca, I might not like you but I'm not leaving you here by yourself just because of your make-up."

"I can't swim, okay!"

"Just jump in! I'll help you swim."

"Maybe it would be best if I helped her," Melody breaks in, as if she thinks I might try to drown Rebecca than pull her to safety. It's a tempting thought… But I guess I don't want to go to court for attempted murder so whatever.

Rebecca sighs, then jumps into the water. She swims away quickly.

"Um… didn't she just say she can't swim?" I check with Melody, who shrugs. Melody and I are about to dive when the full moon passes over the hole in the roof of the cave. Suddenly, golden shining bubbles of light fly all around us.

"Whoa…" I whisper, as if I think any loudness in my voice might shatter the image, but seconds after, the bubbles disappear as quickly as they came.

"That was weird," Mel says.

"I know," I reply. "Well, we'd better hurry up."

Mel and I hold our breath, then dive. As we swim I see an orange tail ahead of us. It's big so it can't be a fish but it doesn't look like a dolphin or anything. I swim a little faster, as to see what it is. When I swim out of the cave, I almost let out the breath I took in before diving as I see what, or should I say who, the tail belongs to. It's a mermaid. I am not joking. I see a long  
scaly orange tail, followed by one of those mermaid bikini-type tops, and a mass of blonde hair. Blonde hair that looks just like Rebecca's…

As Melody and I come up for air, we see that Rebecca's already there.

"You're a fish!" I exclaim.

"You two will be as well in the morning," she says.

"What?"

"Well, let's just say that when the full moon passes over one of those caves – the moon pools – a bit of magic happens and… you just grow a tail."

If Rebecca didn't have a tail I wouldn't believe her but the evidence of the existence of mermaids is right in front of me so I guess that anything's possible…

"So you're telling me that you've basically just let life as we know it change forever without even a little warning?!" I'm practically boiling with anger.

"Guys!" Melody shouts as Rebecca opens her mouth to answer me back. "Look, grow up. This is a serious thing happening here so just stop arguing! Let's just concentrate on getting out of the water."

Rebecca and I sigh in unison and we swim away to find a place to get out of the water and dry off.

When we spot a good place to get out of the water, Melody and I climb out and haul Rebecca out too.

"So, you guys might not have tails yet but you should already have your powers. And Lola, from your attitude, I'm sure that your power is heating things. Maybe you could dry me off?"

I sigh. "What do I have to do?" I ask.

"Ball your hand into a fist, slowly, mind."

As I follow Rebecca's instructions, steam starts to appear. The water on Rebecca's tail dries in an instant and she's back in her human form again.

"C'mon Melody, let's go," I say.

"Wait!" Rebecca says. "If you want to know about mermaids, meet me at the café tomorrow at about 12."

"Sure," Melody says. "If you can help us."

"Yep. You can call me Becca by the way."

"Right," I say. "Bye."

"Look Lola, I know you don't much like me, but if you want my help, we might as well try to get along."

"Fine," I say. "Bye Becca. I guess you can call me Lolly."

"Bye then Lolly, bye Mel."

Melody looks at me, amazed.

"What?" I ask. It's a moment before I realise that I was just almost nice to Rebecca (Becca?) Dove, but then who can blame me? The only thing I can think about is the fact that I'm going to grow a tail tomorrow morning…


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

**Melody's POV**

I sit on a table in the middle of the café, sipping a smoothie, slightly nervously. Lolly sits opposite me, drinking coke through a straw.

Becca was right about us having tails. When Lolly and I left Mako, Becca and her friends were already gone. We packed our things and got in the boat. As were going along, I got splashed and grew a tail. Although I already knew about mermaids, my eyes widened. I guess it was because the actual tail in front of me just made it all too real. After my tail appeared, Lolly looked at me for a moment, before experimentally dipping her finger in the water. About ten seconds later, she too grew a tail. We looked at each other, and laughed a bit, but it was quite nervous laughter. I'm glad we have Becca to teach us about mermaids. I can't imagine how awful it must have been for her to have to go through all that on her own.

After a few more minutes of Lolly and I sitting in silence with chatter all around us, Becca comes in. She spots us and sits down on an extra seat at our table.

"What took you so long?" Lolly asks.

I look at my watch. It's only 4 minutes past 12.

"She's just a little stressed," I say to Becca.

Becca nods. "I know the feeling," she says with a small smile. "Do you guys want to head over to my place to talk about this… issue? My parents are going out so we'll be by ourselves."

"Okay," I reply.

We finish our drinks then leave for Becca's house. It's only a short walk away – about 5 minutes. The house is huge and there's a posh BMW parked in the driveway. As we're about to enter the house, a man and a woman – presumably Becca's parents – walk out. The woman has straight blonde hair like Becca's, and you can really see the similarity between her and Becca. The man has brown hair and doesn't look much like Becca, but you can see a slight resemblance.

"Hi Mum, hi Dad," Becca says. "These are my friends, Lolly and Melody." She points at us in turn.

"Hello girls," Becca's mum says. She has an Australian accent so she must have been born over here. "I'm Emma. Becca's dad and I are going out, but I'm sure we'll see you again soon. Bye for now."

After they've left, we go inside, and then outside again to the back garden.

"Cool swimming pool," Lolly says, noticing the star shaped swimming pool. It's really big but there's still a load of space in the garden. Shows how big the garden really is.

"Yep," Becca says. "Too bad we can't swim in it."

Lolly and I nod in agreement.

The three of us sit on deck chairs laid out around the pool. They're comfy. Becca tells us about being a mermaid. She tells us about the full moon. Apparently, we can't look at it or it's reflection because it will make us go kind of crazy. We can't touch water on the full moon either. Becca gives us a few tips, then shows us how to use our powers properly. Lolly already knows her hand movement, but Becca shows her how to control it. She shows me my power too and then how to control it. I have to twist around my hand to make water move. Cool. Her power is freezing things. She flattens her palm out and water freezes. Only yesterday, Lolly would have made a remark about how that must show that she has a cold heart or something. She doesn't though. I guess a lot has happened to us recently…

After Becca's talked to us about our powers and everything else she can think of, she tells us how she became a mermaid.

"Well, it was my 13th birthday and my friends and I went exploring. I fell down a hole like I did yesterday and found a cave the same as the one at Mako. The only difference was that my friends just laughed at me and wouldn't come to help me. Some friends, huh?" I can hear the anger and the touch of sadness in her voice as she says that. "Anyway," she continues, "I found the pool and saw the tidal rings, so I went to have a look at where it led to. Sure enough, it took me out to sea and I left. The weird thing was that it wasn't a full moon and it was day time anyway. I only found out about the full moon thing later, by the way."

"Well, that's one interesting story," Lolly says.

"I'm sorry about your friends ditching you like that," I say, a little more sympathetically.

"It's okay," Becca says. "It's not your fault, is it?"

"Well, no, but you know…"

After a moment's silence, I speak up again.

"Guys, I have to go home. I've got things to do, but I'll see you at school tomorrow."

"Oh. I forgot about school tomorrow. I don't know how we're going to deal with this at school," Lolly groans.

"Just stick with me. I'll help you," Becca says. "See ya Mel."

"Bye," I say.

Lolly gives a wave, and with that I leave.

I nudge Lolly.

"What's 348 divided by 8?" I ask in a whisper.

"43 and a half," she whispers back in an instant, not even looking up.

"Melody McCartney and Lola Chadwick, stop talking!" a voice shouts – our maths teacher.

"Sorry," we say in unison, and get back to work. The second the bell rings for break, we're out of there. Becca's already waiting for us outside our class. We walk to the playground together and sit down. I look at my schedule to see what lesson I have next, and freeze as I read it.

"Um… Becca?" I say, trying not to panic. "I hate to be a pain, but Lolly and I kind of have a swimming lesson next."

"Swimming? That's easy to get out of. You just have to switch for volleyball. C'mon, let's go ask your teacher now."

The three of us stand up and head to the PE office. We knock on the door and our teacher, Miss Fuller, answers.

"Hello girls. What can I do for you?"

"Melody and I would like to switch swimming lessons for volleyball, please," Lolly says.

"Well… it's a bit short notice… But okay. You can sit out this lesson, and start volleyball next lesson."

Lolly smiles triumphantly and I sigh with relief. We leave.

"Well wasn't that easy?" Becca asks.

"Yeah, I guess," I say.

10 minutes later, Lolly and I sit on chairs around the pool while the other girls and guys swim.

"So…" Lolly says.

"So…" I repeat.

"It's great how we get to miss out on a lesson, huh?"

I think back to maths. Lolly's clever, she just doesn't try.

"I suppose so."

We sit in silence for a moment, when Emily Benjamin, a girl in our class, suddenly splashes a load of water – in our direction! Lolly moves back but I don't quite get there in time. I get soaked. I'm paralysed with shock and fear for a few seconds, until Lolly drags me on to my feet and to the caretaker's cupboard. We get there just in time. I fall on to the floor, just as Lolly slams the door, and she falls a few seconds later, having got wet whilst dragging me.

"Thanks," I say as Lolly dries herself off. When she's dry she stands up. She's midway through drying me when we suddenly hear two voices scarily nearby…

We catch some of their conversation and the colour drains from our faces. They're coming in here! Suddenly, the voices stop, halfway through a sentence. Lolly continues to dry me when the door suddenly bursts open!

A moment later, I sigh with relief.

"Becca!" Lolly exclaims. "What are you doing?"

"Saving your tails," Becca replies, as my legs come back.

The three of us exit the cupboard and my eyes widen as I see what looks like a photo.

Luke Griffin and Kyle Smith are standing outside of the cupboard, completely frozen. Luke is one of mine and Lolly's friends. We've been friends since we were kids. Kyle's okay, I don't really know him that well.

When I manage to tear my eyes away from the image, I look towards Becca who simply smiles and shrugs. That girl has got some serious explaining to do…


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

**a/n: hey guys ;) thanks for the reviews, they're very welcome :P Sorry if I took a while to upload this, I kept getting distracted by NEW EPISODES OF SPONGEBOB. Seriously, watch them. But it was homework and stuff too – we get way too much. School is just… horrific. Anyway, enjoy the chapter.**

**Becca's POV**

It's been a few days since I kind of froze Luke and Kyle. I worked out a while back that I could actually freeze people as if they were actors and I was pausing the television. Pretty cool, huh? When the girls and I closed the door of the cupboard, we quickly went and stood behind Kyle and Luke and it was pretty funny. The freezing effect wore off after a moment and they just carried on with their conversation and walked into the cupboard, like nothing had happened.

Right now, I'm sitting cross legged on my bed, bored. I ask Lolly and Melody to come over via text, and they both say yes. I go downstairs to find my mum sitting in the kitchen.

"Hey Mum, Melody and Lolly are coming over in a few minutes. Is that okay?"

My mum looks up from whatever she was doing.

"Yeah," she replies simply.

Her gaze drops back down to the table, and I move a little closer to see what she's doing. She's looking at a photo and frowning slightly. It's of a teenage version of her with some of her friends. I've never seen it before. Mum doesn't have many photos of her when she was my age.

"Who are they?" I ask.

"What?" Mum says, looking back up again and jumping a little. She probably thought I had gone back upstairs.

"Who are they?" I repeat.

"Oh, just some friends."

I can tell I'm not going to get any more information from Mum, so I decide to leave it for a while. I make a mental note to find out some more information later. I'm sure I'll find out something interesting about it, considering I don't think I've ever seen my mum so distracted as this in my life. It's got to be something important, I reckon.

"Anyway," Mum changes the subject, "it's great that you've made such good friends. I'd like to meet their parents at some point."

Suddenly, the doorbell rings and I go to answer the door, knowing that it'll be Melody and Lolly. I greet them and we go inside. When we get there, I see that my mum's already got up and that she's put the photo away. Damn. I'll have to look for it now.

The three of us go upstairs and talk. After a half hour, Mum tells us that she's going out. Dad's already at work so we'll be alone. When I'm sure that I've heard the front door shut and that Mum's driven away in her BMW, I break into Melody and Lolly's conversation which they haven't seemed to notice I'm not participating in.

"Hey, guys?" I start. They look up at me. "I was wondering, would you help me look for something?"

"Um… Sure, I guess," Melody says.

"Okay, what is it?" Lolly asks.

"Well, earlier on, just before you got here, I saw my mum looking at a photo in the kitchen. But she put it away when you got here. I've never seen it before, but I knew it must be important because she was really distracted by it. Plus, I just had this feeling that it was important and I don't know why. So I just want to get a close look at and try to find out why."

"Okay. Well why don't we try downstairs, if that's where you saw your mum with it?"

I nod, and we head downstairs. After looking around for a while, we find some interesting stuff, but not the photo. Suddenly, my eyes slide over a drawer with a lock on it, and I just know that the photo must be in there. I try to open it, in the slim hope that it's unlocked, but it doesn't budge. I sigh, and the other two look over at me, questioningly. I explain about the drawer being locked and everything, and when I'm finished Lolly takes a hair slide out of her hair.

"Try this," she suggests, tossing it to me. So I try it and, miraculously, it works. And I find the photo lying right on top of everything else in the drawer. I take the photo out, and Melody walks over to me to get a look. As she nears me, she suddenly stops dead still.

"Melody?" I ask. But she stays frozen. "Mel? What's up?"

"Becca…" Mel starts in a slightly high pitched voice. "Why does your mum have a photo of mine and Lolly's parents?"

I stare at her in shock and Lolly runs over.

"Oh… my… God…" she whispers into the silence.

Lolly, Melody and I are sitting on chairs around my kitchen table, discussing the photo. Melody was the first to get over it. She was sensible about it, as she is with everything, and stated a bunch of reasons why Mum must have had the photo. We've actually unravelled quite a lot. Apparently, Lolly's and Melody's parents were friends with a girl called Emma who moved away and they lost touch. Her boyfriend was called Ash. Considering my parents are called Emma and Ash, you can figure out how this all fits in.

"Wait, Becca, do you know what your mum's maiden name is?" Lolly asks.

"Um, yeah. Gilbert. Emma Gilbert."

Mel and Lolly share confirming looks and nods.

"It's her," they say in unison.

"We have to tell our parents! It'll be like a family reunion sort of thing! Except, they aren't family…" Melody says.

"So… when do we tell them?" Lolly asks.

I suddenly remember what Mum said about wanting to meet Mel's and Lolly's parents this morning, and tell the girls.

"Cool," Melody says. "So should we ask our parents to come over to yours and say that your mum invited our families for dinner or something?"

"Yeah, I'll get back to you on when my mum wants them to come," I reply.

We find some more photos in the drawer of Mum and Dad along with their friends, or sometimes just Mum with her friends. She looks so happy in them. I can't wait until we get them all together again.

**a/n: so I was going to do the whole parents-being-reunited thing later but I didn't really know what to write about, so here you go. Blame it on my homework though. I think it's messing up my brain or something. ;)**

**-notKate, Kat xxx**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

**a/n: decided to finish this quickly and upload it earlier than normal coz I took ages to upload the last one. R&R. Enjoy.**

**Lolly's POV**

Today is Saturday. It's been six days since Mel and I went round Becca's house and we saw the photos. I'm practically dying of anticipation.

Today is also the day that Mel, her mum, my mum, and I are going to Becca's house for dinner. Mel and I are already at Becca's house but our parents will be here soon.

The three of us are sitting in Becca's bedroom, waiting, when we suddenly hear the doorbell ring. Becca jumps off her bed and runs over to the window.

"It's them!" she whisper-squeals. Becca's mum asks us to answer the door, and tells us she'll be downstairs in a minute. So the three of us run downstairs, quietly, and head for the front door.

Becca opens it eagerly.

"Hello," she says, trying to sound polite but kind of failing. "Mum will be downstairs in a minute but make yourself comfortable in the front room."

She leads the way to the front room and tells the adults to sit down. They do so, and after a moment, Becca's mum comes in.

"Hello, I'm-" she begins, before breaking off in the middle of her sentence. Her mouth forms a perfect circle of shock and looking at my mum and Mel's mum, they're doing the same thing.

"Emma," Mel's mum whispers.

Suddenly, all of our mums are grinning like crazy as Becca, Mel and I tiptoe upstairs to leave them alone to be reunited.

"It's not fair," I complain as Becca gently closes her bedroom door behind her. "I wanted to see what's going to happen next!"

"Lolly, our mums were best friends with each other and Becca's mum when they were our age, but they lost touch with Emma. They've just been reunited after all this time so I think it would be nice to give them a little quiet," Mel tells me.

"Yeah, yeah," I mutter.

Becca and Mel sit on the bed talking, whilst I lay on my front on the floor, flicking through a magazine and thinking. Suddenly, I stand up and turn towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Becca asks.

"To spy on them," I reply, quietly.

"You can't!"

"Yes I can."

"Just let her, Becca. She can be pretty stubborn," Mel says.

Becca says nothing more, and I smile before heading out of the door and quietly closing it behind me.

I creep down the stairs, careful not to make any noise at all. I pause for a moment when I get to the bottom. I hear voices coming from the kitchen, so I head that way.

As I come closer, I hear Emma say, "Rikki Chadwick, how many times have you broken up with Zane now? I didn't think so at first, but you were perfect for each other!"

I smile as I peer round the corner into the kitchen, and see my mum blushing. Zane is my dad. They had me when they were going out but they never got married, they simply broke up. And from what I'm hearing now, they broke up and got back together again many times before that.

"Besides," Emma says, lowering her voice to a whisper so that I have to strain to hear. "How can you be sure he won't tell our secret?"

Their secret? This is getting very interesting…

Suddenly, Cleo says she left her phone in the front room and she's just going to get it. I stay where I am, until I remember that she has to pass me to get there. I run back to the staircase on tiptoe and turn round the corner just in time. Well that was close. But I never got to hear about their secret! It's probably not half as interesting as ours, but still, I'd like to know.

I trail back to Becca's room. The other two stare at me expectantly as I enter the room and sink back down onto the floor.

"I didn't hear much because Cleo was about to pass me to get to the front room, so I had to rush away, but I heard something that you might like to hear…" I say. I quote what Emma said to Mum about their secret.

"They have a secret? I'm presuming you never found out what it is though?" Becca asks.

I shake my head. "Unfortunately not. That was when I had to leave. We should really investigate this."

"I don't think we should," Mel says.

"Why?" Becca and I ask in unison.

"Well, if they heard us talking about how we had a secret but not what it was so they spied on us to try and find it out, we wouldn't like that. It's their secret and it should stay like that unless they choose to tell us."

"I guess…" I say, sighing.

"But they're our parents! They should trust us enough to tell us. Family should trust each other. Secrets can tear people apart. Believe me, I know," Becca says.

"You're contradicting yourself there. You basically mentioned that you're keeping a secret from your mum, yet you think she's not allowed to keep one from you," Mel points out.

"Fine."

"Good. I'm just going to get some food, I'll be back in a few," Mel tells us, before walking out the door.

Becca closes the door and moves a little closer to me.

"We're not really going to forget about this secret, are we?" she whispers.

"Not a chance," I tell her.

"So, we find it out without telling Mel?"

"She'll probably find out what we're doing at some point, and she'll be pretty mad, but no way am I going to forget about this."

"Okay."

Suddenly, we hear Mel coming back.

"Shut up now," I say. "Time to act normal."

"You shut up!" Becca retorts.

I throw a pillow at her and she laughs then throws it back at me. Yep, definitely normal.

.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

**a/n: so, here you go. Because I'm so kind, I'm uploading this chapter as the second chapter of the day. And I uploaded chapter 3 yesterday. I think I'm on a roll here, guys. Enjoy. Oh, by the way, I don't know if I said anything about what time of year it is in this so far, and I'm too lazy to check ;) but I'm gonna say that the summer holidays have just started. I might have to do some editing later, when I can be bothered, but it won't be anything major, so just carry on reading.**

**Melody's POV**

"Morning," I say to Mum as I walk downstairs, sleepily, still wearing my pyjamas.

"Good morning," she says, grinning.

Hmm… she's acting very cheerful this morning. Well, I guess she would be, seeing as Emma's back after all this time. I know I would be if the same thing happened with me, Lolly, and Becca. I decide to measure just how far I can push my luck with all Mum's sudden happiness.

"So, um… can I have some coke?" I ask.

"Sure," Mum says. Wow, she must be _seriously_ happy. I cannot remember one single day in my whole entire life when Mum has let me have coke before breakfast.

I grab a can of coke from the fridge before Mum can change her mind, pour it into a glass and, of course, dip in a bendy straw. I smile as the bubbles fizz on my tongue. Delicious. Seriously, I almost forgot how good it was.

I start to wonder about Mum, Rikki and Emma's secret. I know I was the one who said we should just leave it alone, but I suppose it is quite hard to just completely forget about it. I can see how Lolly and Becca feel. But I know we shouldn't spy on our parents. It's their secret and it's their choice if they don't want to tell us about it.

I'm swirling the dark, bubbly liquid around in my glass when my phone beeps, signalling that I have a text. It's from Lolly, asking me to meet her at Mako at 11. Becca's coming too. I check the time and it's half 10 already.

I stand up to go and get changed, without realising that Mum's standing right behind me with a glass of water which spills all over me!

"Um… I'm meeting Lolly and Becca in a half hour so I'm going to get changed and stuff now," I say to Mum then quickly rush upstairs before she can reply.

When I surface in the moon pool, Becca and Lolly are already there, waiting for me.

"What took you so long?" asks Lolly, who's dry and sitting on the sandy ground. "I said 11. It's…" she pauses to check her watch, "quarter past!"

"C'mon, it's only fifteen minutes," I say. "Besides, my mum spilt water all over me and it took me ages to dry off."

"She didn't see anything, did she?"

"No, I ran upstairs and locked myself in the bathroom to dry off."

"So, swim time?" Becca asks.

"Yep," I say.

Lolly dives back into the water to join me and Becca, and moments later, we're all gliding gracefully through the ocean.

I love being a mermaid. Sure, it can be hard to keep it a secret at times, like this morning, but it's great to swim through the ocean like this. I love to swim with the dolphins, to watch all the fish drifting past without a care. I never realised just how beautiful fish really were. They're so colourful and they have such beautiful patterns. I used to think the fish we have at home were amazing, but these are something else, really.

After about ten minutes, Lolly points in the direction of the moon pool's underwater entrance, meaning that she wants to go back now. Becca and I nod and we all swim back.

"So," I say when we surface. "What's up?"

"Well, it's mine and Dan's birthday soon, and-" Lolly begins before Becca cuts her off.

"Dan?" she asks.

"My twin brother," Lolly explains.

"You have a twin?" Becca asks, incredulously. "I didn't even know you had any siblings, let alone a twin!"

"Bex, he's my brother. I hate him. Why would I talk about him?"

I roll my eyes at this and smile.

"Anyways," Lolly continues. "It's our birthday soon and we're having a big party, y'know, coz we'll be sixteen and everything, and I was wondering if you guys would come?"

"Well, of course," I say. "How could we not? Becca?"

"Depends," Becca says. "I mean, I want to, but I might not be able to. When is it?"

"Next Saturday," Lolly says.

"Yeah, I think I'm free. Who else is going?"

"Well, I'm only inviting you two and Luke, but Dan has a bunch of friends who he's inviting. Like, I think Kyle will be there. You know Kyle, the one who you froze."

I stifle a giggle. Lolly mentions that every chance she gets.

Later on, Lolly, Becca and I all walk home together. After a while of silence, Becca speaks up.

"I forgot, it's a full moon tonight. Do you two want to stay round my house? My mum won't mind because it's the summer holidays, so we don't have school."

"Sure," Lolly says. "I'll just go back home and get my stuff, and I can be back at yours in five. My mum definitely won't care. She had sleepovers all the time when she was our age, so she lets me too. Thanks to Mel's mum."

I grin, remembering. The first time that I wanted to have a sleepover, Mum kindly reminded Rikki about all the sleepovers that they had when they were younger so she gave in.

"Yeah, same with my mum. I've got a few things to do, so I'll be over in an hour or so," I say.

We've reached Becca's house by now, so we separate from her. Then we get to mine and Lolly's houses, and we both say bye to each other too.

"See you in an hour then," I say.

"Bye," Lolly says.

Then I enter my house to get ready.

**a/n: by the way, I'm not very good with endings so they might drag on a bit ;)**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

**a/n: I am actually really annoyed now, because I looked at the time on my iPod a little while ago, and it said 20:12. So I was like, "oh cool, it's gonna be 20:13 in a minute." And guess what happened just before the time changed. My iPod ran out of charge. Annoying, huh? ;) But oh my God, three chapters in one day. I'm on fire. Um… metaphorically, that is…**

**Becca's POV**

True to her word, Lolly turns up five minutes after going back to her house.

"Hey, Lolly," I say as I open the front door to let her in.

"Hey," she says. "Is it just us here?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, Mel won't be here for about an hour. So we might as well look into this secret thing of our mums."

"Okay. Why don't we look through some photos? It probably won't help much, but you never know. It's all we've really got for now anyway."

So we go back to the drawer where we found the other photo that Mum had out. Lolly silently hands me her hair slide again and I pick the lock with it.

There are quite a lot of photos of Mum and her friends when they were our age. There's one of Mum, Cleo, and Rikki with three guys. One of them is my dad. One of them has blonde hair and one of them has brown hair. I ask Lolly if she knows who the other two are. She smiles.

"That," she says, pointing at the brown haired one, "is my dad, Zane. My mum and him were never married – just going out. From what I've heard, they broke up all the time. I don't remember him because he left when I was two years old and none of us have seen him since."

"I'm sorry," I sympathise.

"Don't be. Zane sounds like a loser anyway. He broke Mum's heart. I never want to see him again. Anyway, the blonde guy is Lewis, Mel's dad."

Lolly and I look through some more of the photos. We don't exactly find out anything about their secret, but it's nice to look at all these photos where our parents were so happy together. It kind of reminds me of us three.

We do actually notice something though. In every single picture, all three girls are wearing identical necklaces.

"It must have been some sort of symbol of their friendship," Lolly says. "We should get something like that."

After a while, the doorbell rings. I look at the clock and it's been an hour, so that's got to be Melody. I ask Lolly to put the photos back while I answer the door. She nods, and when I come back with Mel, everything looks like it did before Lolly came here.

An hour later, Melody, Lolly and I are sitting in my bedroom watching SpongeBob. **(Kat here, I love SpongeBob, just saying) **

"Imagine if we were swimming and we saw SpongeBob," Lolly says.

Melody laughs. "That would be weird."

Suddenly, my phone rings. It's Mum.

"Hey Mum," I say. "What's up?"

"Hi Becca. I'll be working late tonight, so I hope you and your friends don't mind being alone until about 12. Rikki and Cleo said that if you need them they'll just be at Cleo's house."

"Okay, we don't mind. See you in the morning."

"Bye."

I end the call then go back to Mel and Lolly.

"That was my mum," I say. "She said she'll be home at about 12."

"Cool," Lolly says. "So, does that mean we can have a wild party or something?"

"Shut up, Lolly," Mel says.

Lolly rolls her eyes. "Lighten up," she says.

At 11, we all put our pyjamas on, and I get into my bed while Lolly and Mel get into their sleeping bags on the floor. I dim the lights, and we talk in the dark. It's fun. I love sleepovers…

I think I fell asleep. Well, I obviously fell asleep, considering it is 9:24 in the morning, and I don't remember anything at all between the hours of about 11 until now. I know I didn't get moonstruck because I'm kind of immune to it now. I haven't been moonstruck since I was fourteen, but that's another story…

"Wake up guys," I say to Mel and Lolly, who are lying on the floor where I left them, asleep.

"What?" Lolly murmurs, sitting up. "What the hell Becca?! It's so early!"

Mel, who's also sat up, raises her eyebrows.

"Take no notice. Lolly's not a morning person," she advises me.

"I won't," I assure her, smiling.

"Um… no one got moonstruck, did they?" Lolly asks.

"Nope," I reply. "Well, I don't think so anyway… Let's go downstairs."

We get changed and ready for the day then head downstairs. Mum's making breakfast.

"I'll have toast," I say as I sit down in the kitchen, then add, "with jam. Or maybe butter. Yeah, butter."

"Good morning to you too," Mum says. "And you can make your own toast, lazy." Although she says this, she puts two slices of bread in the toaster and gets the butter out of the fridge.

"Can I have cereal please?" Mel asks.

"Of course," Mum replies.

"I'll have the same as Becca," Lolly practically orders my mum, who smiles.

"So like your mother," she says.

Lolly grins. "Believe it or not, she's the sensible one now."

So Mum and Lolly begin to have a conversation about Rikki, with Mel chipping in too. I just smile, listening to the things they say whilst munching on the toast that Mum hands to me when she's finished toasting it.

When Lolly's finished the conversation with my mum, and eating her toast of course, we decide to go to the beach. When we get there we see Luke, who joins us.

"Hey, Lukey," Lolly says. I grin. Luke hates when she calls him that.

"Shut up," he says as Lolly laughs, evilly.

"So," she says when she's over her fit of giggles. "I was wondering if you'd like to come to mine and Dan's birthday party."

"Sure. When is it, and where?" Luke asks.

"Saturday, at my place. Be there by 12."

Luke leaves after a while, when the girls and I begin to plan things like what we'll be wearing for the party.

"I'll never understand girls," he says as he goes.

"Bye Lukey!" Lolly calls out and Mel and I smile at her.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

**a/n: I'm writing this chapter on my iPod, but it's auto-correcting practically every single word to a word that doesn't even exist... So sorry if some of it doesn't make any sense - I can edit mistakes when I go on my laptop. Enjoy.**

**Becca's POV**

I arrive at Lolly's house with a birthday card and a gift in hand, and with Melody at my side. Lolly's in the garden when we get there and she runs over to us as soon as she sees us.

"Happy birthday Lols!" Melody says, grinning, and hands her a card and gift.

I say happy birthday too, then give her my card and gift. Then I say, "very grown up," and wink. I'm talking about Lolly's dress. It's purple, short, tight, and glittery. It really is grown up. I've never seen Lolly wear anything like that before. Then a boy comes up to us. A boy that takes my breath away. It must be Dan because he's wearing a birthday badge, and he looks similar to Lolly. He's seriously good-looking. He's tall with caramel coloured hair and chocolate brown eyes, and his smile would actually be enough to melt chocolate. It melts my heart, at least.

"Hey Lols, Mel," he says. "And you must be Becca." He turns to me.

"That's me. You're Dan then?"

"Yep."

"So, having a good birthday sis?" he asks Lolly.

"The best!" Lolly shrieks.

"Gee, you're hurting my ears!" Dan laughs. "Well, I'll see you guys later. Have fun."

Dan walks off. "He seems nice. I don't know why you hate him," I say, referring to what she said in the moon pool last week.

"Lolly hates everyone," Mel says, giggling.

It's 9 in the evening now. It's been a really good day so far. There's a bonfire in the garden now and logs are laid around it. I'm sitting on one by myself. Lolly's shamelessly flirting with Kyle. She doesn't even know Kyle that well, but that's Lolly for you. Melody's sitting on another log with Luke. Suddenly, Dan sits down next to me.

"Hey," he says. "You looked lonely."

"Hi," I say back, smiling. "I'm not lonely, just thinking." Actually, I was kind of lonely but whatever. All I care about is that Dan's sitting next to me. I know he's Lolly's brother, so I guess he's kind of off limits, but still.

"Look at those two," he says, pointing at Mel and Luke. I look and see why Dan told me to. They're talking non-stop and you can practically see sparks flying all around them. They were pretty much made for each other. The only problem is that neither of them can see that the other one likes them.

I smile then say, "look at your sister."

Lolly's still flirting with Kyle. Dan rolls his eyes, laughing.

Kyle walks off after a while, and Lolly spots me and Dan and comes to sit with us.

"What was that about with Kyle?" Dan asks, teasingly.

Lolly sticks her tongue out. "Well, he's a boy. And he's kinda cute. But he seems a little arrogant if you ask me."

"Oh, well you're perfect match then!" I joke.

Lolly elbows me, laughing. Then Melody joins us.

"Where's Luke?" Lolly asks.

"He went to get something to drink," Mel replies.

We all chat for a while, then Luke comes back with a glass of water.

"Gee, Lukey. Are you seriously drinking water? C'mon, it's a party! At least get some coke or something!"

Luke just glares at her while she grins.

Suddenly, Luke drops his glass of water and it splashes all over us! Mel, Lolly and I stare at each other with wide eyes then we all run off. We reach a part of the garden enclosed by trees just in time. Lolly groans, then starts to dry us all off. But before she gets the chance to finish, two figures appear next to us. Luke and Dan.

"What did you-" Luke starts, before he sees us and his eyes widen.

"What... the...?" Dan stutters, unable to finish his sentence.

"Um... I can explain...?" Lolly says.

But Dan just glares at her. "I don't really know what's going on here, but we're twins, Lola. We're supposed to stick together. I can't believe you wouldn't tell me about something like this."

His words are cold and harsh, and he walks off when he's finished saying them.

I think back to what Lolly said to Dan earlier, when Mel and I first arrived. Best birthday ever? Maybe not.

**a/n: ooh, some interesting stuff happened... Sorry this chapter's short, by the way, but considering I've now written five chapters in less than 3 (less than 3? Ryan Higa fans - I mean lamps - will know what I'm talking about :P) days, well, give me a break, right? ;) Love you guys, R&R ;)**

**-Kat xxx**


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